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*Updated 9/3* Syncing in Microsoft Edge Preview Channels

Microsoft

Syncing your browser data in Microsoft Edge Preview builds
We heard your feedback and are committed to making sync a more reliable feature across devices. We’ve rebuilt our sync experience from the ground up and we’re making extra effort to ensure that sync meets your expectations. Our goal for sync is to ensure that you have a consistent browsing experience when you choose to roam your favorites, passwords, history, and other data across your devices.


*Updated 9/3* What is the current state of sync and what is the road ahead?

  • You can now sync Favorites, Settings (preference), Passwords & Form-fill data across Windows devices, and across Microsoft Edge on Android and iOS (instructions below).
  • Sync is enabled for both Microsoft accounts (MSA) as well as work or school accounts (AAD).
  • Note that AAD sync is only available for AAD premium accounts (SKUs which include Azure Information Protection) and is not yet rolled out for macOS.
  • We are working on pending attributes and will be enabling them soon (history, extensions & open tabs)
  • As we are building a new system, Edge builds are not expected to sync with earlier versions of Microsoft Edge. You can import your existing favorites from earlier versions of Microsoft Edge.

Enabling sync on PC
When you sign in with your Microsoft account on Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, you’ll get a dialogue asking for consent to enable sync. Once you give the consent, your favorites should start syncing. Note that you can customize the sync behavior from the sync settings page.

 

PC Sync SettingsPC Sync Settings

Note that some attributes might be disabled on this page. They will be enabled on this page as we enable sync for them.


Enabling sync on Android
Our Microsoft Edge app on Android can now sync with the Microsoft Edge Insider Channels. But first, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version on Google play.
To sync with Microsoft Insider Channels, sign in with your Microsoft Account, ensure that it is selected as your active account, go to Settings > Account and select your Microsoft account, then select Microsoft Edge Insider Channels > Switch.

 

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After you switch to Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, you will be asked how you want to handle your existing favorites. You can choose to import and sync your existing favorites with Microsoft Edge Insider Channels. If you choose no, your existing favorites will be deleted before sync is enabled.

 

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If you choose to import favorites, when you visit Favorites for the first time, you’ll see all your current favorites and they’ll start syncing with your Microsoft Edge Insider Channels on your PC.

 

Enabling sync on iOS  

We are happy to announce that we have expanded our sync support to iOS.  To begin syncing your favorites between you iOS devices and your other Microsoft Edge Insider devices, you must first update Microsoft Edge for iOS to the latest version on iTunes.  To sync with the Insider Channels you can follow similar steps as those listed above in the Sync with Android section. 

First you will need to sign in with your Microsoft Account, ensure that it is selected as your active account, go to Settings > Account and select your Microsoft account, then select Microsoft Edge Insider Channels > Switch. 

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After you switch to Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, you will be asked how you want to handle your existing favorites. You can choose to import and sync your existing favorites with Microsoft Edge Insider Channels. If you choose no, your existing favorites will be deleted before sync is enabled.   

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Once you have completed these steps you will see all of your imported favorites in your favorites list. 


What do you think?
We are excited about sync in Microsoft Edge Insider Channels and are very optimistic that we are building it right. However, we want to be sure that sync works across your workflows and browsing scenarios. Please give it a try and let us know how it worked for you. If you run into any issues, use the in-app feedback button to submit the details. If you have other feedback for us about sync, please leave a comment below.


Thank you for trying the new Microsoft Edge.

279 Replies

@Mike_BNL 

 

I get the same error message on mine...  Happens on every computer with my primary MSFT account.  I can, however, sign in with a different account for sync and don't have an issue.

I didnt get the import options when I changed the sync options to the new Edge.

@bassoprofundo 

 

Strange, same thing happens to me. Only difference I can think of right now is that my primary MSFT account is also linked to my Edge on Android, with the preference set to Edge Insider build.

@Elliot Kirk I've mentioned this in a few threads, but it's been two weeks and sync is still not working for me. Syncing initially worked fine, but since version 75.0.137.0, it consistently tells me it can't connect to the sync server. I reported this two weeks ago in this thread, and last week I sent feedback through the dedicated button. 

 

Today I thought uninstalling and reinstalling the browser might help, but it didn't. I don't know what it is, but it just won't work.

@Mike_BNL  I have Edge as my default browser on Android with that same primary account signed in, but I had not changed the sync options over to syncing with the insider channels vs "old" Edge.

 

P.S.- I got the below message yesterday in email in what looks to be a response to my submitting the issue via the in-app feedback.  I don't see any change in the sync behavior, but maybe this is something they've fixed and is now in the canary builds.   I may try that on a vm here just to see.

------------------------------

"Hi,

Good news! On May 06, 2019, you shared with us this feedback:

I get a "Not Syncing" message when signed in with my primary microsoft account (happens on multiple[…]


We want to let you know that we recently fixed an issue that’s related to this feedback you’ve shared with us.

Thank you for helping us make Microsoft Edge better than it was before. We can’t wait to hear what you think of next!

The Microsoft Edge Team"

My favs sync seems to be greyed out. I've sign in/out several times. Uninstalled/ reinstalled several times and nothing. Any ideas? Cheers.

 

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@r33zA 

Have you, already, Imported your Favs to Edge C?

Cheers,
Drew
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Thanks @Drew1903 I had.

 

Just playing around again, and disabling all blocking on the network and enabling all privacy switchers to ON and is seems to be working now and not greyed out. So maybe it blocked along the line or it's a fluke and after a few reboots etc it started to work.

 

Being greyed out does make me wonder if I had some deeper level group policy enabled that I was using for the kids accounts and one of the options may have triggered it as I reset all policies back to default, i'm really not sure.

 

Thanks again for the reply.

 

 

I'm still seeing Edge on my Windows 10 PC showing "Not Syncing".  In settings I can't update any of the sync settings (it's grayed out) indicating that it can't connect to the sync server.

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I'm experiencing this on both of my PC, exact same error.  

I have setup my Android phone correctly as well, but that's not syncing for obvious reasons.

 

I'm running the latest Dev Channel build [Version 75.0.139.4 (Official build) dev (64-bit)]

 

-Stephen

Hi @indospot, we have 1:1 help agents that can probably assist you more that I can on this forum.  There are links to help on the right side of the forum windows, I have also included the link here: https://microsoftedgesupport.microsoft.com, and select Contact Support.

I really hope that they can get you unblocked quickly.

Thanks,

Elliot

@Elliot Kirk 

 

One neat suggestion for syncing:

 

  1. Enable edge://flags syncing between devices, optionally. We make tweaks to the flags and it's confusing copying them between systems. 

Chrome doesn't sync chrome://flags and Firefox doesn't sync about:config. That's always been annoying: I would love if Edge beat them at their own game.

@Elliot Kirk 

 

Two more that came to me:

  1. Sync our dictionaries, i.e., when we add new spellings to Edge's database. It's crazy some browsers cannot implement a synced word database in 2019.
  2. Sync the new tab page favorites. Nothing is more welcoming than all your previously saved favorites showing up on a new system so you can get going immediately.

@Elliot Kirk 

I am having a problem with sync. I have re-installed Edge Developer (Chrome) maybe 5-6 times. The last three times, I get a message at the user icon "Not Syncing) and in the profile "Couldn't connect to the Sync Server, Retrying..."

I followed all the steps above and Edge on my Android is synced okay.

On my PC, I cannot sync unless I connect with a different MS Account that I have, billbyrnes@msn.com.

 

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Bill Byrnes

@billbyrnes 

 

We are aware that some users are running into error with sync. We apologize for this. Thanks for your patience, we are actively looking into this. From what we have investigated so far, you might not be able to recover from this error by usual client side actions like restarting or signing out/in. We will post an update once the issue is resolved.

 

CC.    @Mike_BNL   , @DiggsMcGee , @bassoprofundo  , @indospot  , @Stephen Berard 

Hi @akhator 

 

Hopefully we will see an update for iOS to allow us to sync dev channels too with a switch?

@r33zA As an iPhone user, I can't wait for the support to come in. As a Windows 10 insider, I am not holding my hopes up that it's going to happen any time soon because Microsoft has been working on the Your Phone app for a very long time and it doesn't look like support for iPhones is going to begin any time soon. So if they haven't even started something worth testing on the Windows 10 side, I don't expect that they'll be much faster on the Edge side of things.

@NicolSD 

I have a Windows phone so Your Phone I haven't delved into it, of course.  But, it is/was my understanding (from what I've read & what Your Phone shows) that it supported both android & iPhone.  It this, actually, not the case?  I, too, am a Windows Insider, but, not only there, but, even 1809 Your Phone says it supports both. 

Cheers,
Drew
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@Drew1903 

 

All it does for iPhone is allow you to continue reading a web page from your iPhone to your computer. Nothing more. And you know what? It's buggy as hell. Any hopes for more features are fairly squashed by the statement in the app that says "Additional features for iPhone are being considered for future releases."

@NicolSD 

Ah ok thanks, Nicol.  Organizing it for iPhones must be more challenging than for Androids, for whatever reasons. And in that same vein, I just noticed on the "What's New" for today's Build it only mentions & discusses Android.

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Read the fine print :face_with_rolling_eyes: on the app, silly... and I think I did, way back when.  Still, appreciate you explaining

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Cheers,
Drew
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Just don't get it. I'm running Edge preview on both the PC and Mac and they are working great, id be happy already to use them full time they work so nicely. I also like Edge on my my iPhone, but with out sync my OCD and not having my favs etc together isn't ideal.

 

MS are on a bit of a winner here and also have a great amount of hype going. You would think that they would want to get it out everywhere.

 

To be honest, they could just leave the current iOS app as is for now, just add the switch to sync between different channels, I doubt its too hard to implement in to the current version just to ask where to find the online sync database.